Grandpa's Regret

This is an excerpt from "Stories of my Life" by Loren Lorenzen

My life has very few regrets in it. But the one regret I have is how I treated Anna. She was a Queen. I didn't treat her royally. She was always kind and gentle. Loving.  

And I never really realized that until the funeral time when the kids were talking about her, how they watched her go through the loss of Gary and grandson Kolton. And how great she was at all things. In every picture we have of her, she's smiling. Amazing to me. I didn't treat her well.  

So, was this true of your whole marriage or just later in life? 

 It was later in life. I was so happy when we were married. Really happy when we get married. 

But it was later in life. Probably after she was gone, I realized it. I really didn't treat her like she should have been treated.  

 So, how would you have treated her better in those days? What would you say to Zeke? 

I would have told her  I loved her more than I did. I would have tried to love her more. It's hard for me to talk about that. 

(Tears) 

Very difficult. 

Why do you think you didn't treat her as well as she deserved?  

I don't know. She was a wonderful woman, a wonderful woman. And I admired her. But I didn't treat her well. I like to play golf. She didn't. I did things without her.  

I remember when we went back for Anna's 50th high school reunion. And they lined up all the gals from that school. Anna was by far the best. A treasure. By far. I got the pick of the litter.   

In what way was she the best?  

Well, all the other gals were grumpy old ladies. She wasn't scrumpy at all. She was the best. I got the treasure but didn’t realize it until it was too late.